TUGUEGARAO CITY—Health officials in Cagayan Valley on Sunday (May 16) confirmed that 16 COVID-19 cases caused by “variants of concern” had been recorded in the region.
Dr. Rio Magpantay, regional health director, said the variants of SARS Cov2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, had been found in the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela and Quirino.
These included 14 B.1.1.7 variants that originated from U.K. and two B.1.351 variants that originated from South Africa.
Magpantay said nine patients were infected through local transmission, and seven overseas Filipino workers that went home to these province had been the carriers of the virus variants.
These cases were confirmed by results of tests made by the Philippine Genome Center in Quezon City.
No cases of the B.1.617.2 variant, which originated from India and is causing concern among health experts, were found in the region.
TSB